A group of Russian senators presented on Tuesday a report to the Federation Council on reforming the law on weapons, and suggested legalizing possession of handguns for self-defense and other lawful purposes.

The author of the report, the first vice-speaker in the Federation Council Alexander Torshin, said the bill on legalizing short-barreled weapons would be submitted to the State Duma for consideration “only when there will be an understanding that…it’s complete."

According to the senators’ initiative, Russian citizens over 23 years old who do not have outstanding convictions, mental diseases or drug addiction, will be allowed to buy firearms for self-defense after passing a special training test on using arms.

The supporters of the bill said that it could help to reduce crime rates, since the potential criminals would be aware that their victim could have a gun.

Torshin called the legalization of handguns one of the most efficient means of self-defense when “the state is unable to ensure the safety of life, health and property.”

The authors of the report also stated that Russia’s GDP will grow by one trillion rubles ($33 billion) within five years if the law is adopted “due to the development of the arms and munitions industries, as well as service companies."

The Russian Interior Ministry, as well as Presidential Administration, are against the proposal, Troshin said, citing their official responses.

However, a Russian lawmaker, Vladimir Pligin, expressed doubts that legalizing handguns would help to decrease the crime rates.

“Many advocates of free arms circulation like to refer to the foreign experience, claiming that arms sales reduced the number of crimes and made people feel secure due to having Magnum or Walther guns,” Pligin told the Rossiyskaya Gazeta daily on Tuesday. “There is no definite answer as to how free arms possession correlates with crime rates.”

The senator said that unlike the United States and Europe, where the handguns are legal, Russia had never seen mass shooting rampages.

Twelve people are reported to have been killed and another 50 injured on Friday in a shooting at a Denver movie theater, when a 24-year-old U.S. citizen fired an assault rifle.